WALL*E

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening this Friday from Academy Award winning writer/director of “Finding Nemo” Andrew Stanton and Pixar/Disney is the cosmic comedy of “Wall*E”.

This is the story of Wall*E (short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), a personable little robot that has, for the past 700 years, been alone. It is now the year 2700 and during this time he has been knick-knack collecting, trash compacting and finding other ways to keep himself busy.

One day a spaceship lands and out pops the lovely Eve (short for Extra-terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator), a she-bot that captures Wall*E’s little metal heart. She is fast, can fly and carries a laser and knows how to use it! Eve realizes that her new friend has the key to the future of the planet! She needs to get back to report to the humans who are waiting to return home.

Wall*E follows Eve across the universe and, in the process sets in motion an adventure for everyone.  Joining Wall*E on his journey are not only his pet cockroach Hal, but also a hilarious team of malfunctioning misfit robots who are heroes in their own right!

FINAL WORD: This film is absolutely adorable, there I said it! It is filled with sci-fi along with being a love story with comedy thrown in for good measure. The character of Wall*E just tugs at your heart.

The first part of the film is how Wall*E spends his time alone. Endearing is the only word to describe it. The second half is fast and still has very little human speech. It is actually nice to not have dialogue and just experience all the characters for being who they are and still ‘awwww-ing’ for each one.

The blurps and bleeps are provided by Ben Burtt as Wall*E and M-O. Elissa Knight as Eve, Jeff Garlin as the Captain, Fred Willard as Forthright and John Ratzenberger as John. Also providing voices are Kathy Najimi as Mary and Sigourney Weaver as the ships computer.

FINAL WORD: Pixar and Disney have done it again with out a doubt. Not since R2-D2 of “Star Wars” or Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit” has a robot been so darn loveable! This is a fantastic family film filled with all the lessons of life and hardly a word spoken. 

Pixar has become so well loved for their films with recent hits such as “The Incredibles”, “Ratatouille” and “Cars”. To be sure “Wall*E” will be added to that list very quickly.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “Wall*E” four tubs of popcorn out of five. Its just pure enjoyment worth every moment in the theatre no matter if you’re a kid or a kid at heart.

Of course Pixar has a little short at the beginning called “PRESTO” and it is equally as delightful.

So prepare yourself for an adventure beyond the ordinar*E!